1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the area of precision farming, which involves determining where to apply fertilizers, locating soil deficiencies, determining yield variances in specific areas of their fields, and evaluating the efficiency of farming. More specifically, the field of the invention is that of yield monitoring.
2. Description of the Related Art
A century ago the average farmer fed about 8 people with his labors. Today he feeds about 212 people, and in the future the figure will be even higher. One of the ways in which farmers have been increasing their yields has been through precision farming. Precision farming tools and tactics include global positioning systems (GPS), grid mapping which involves taking soil samples at precise locations year after year, geographic information systems (GIS), yield monitoring and precision applications.
Through all of these methods, yields of crops have increased markedly year after year. For example, the average bushels produced per acre in 1926 was 25.7 whereas in 1996 the average bushel per acre of corn produced was 127.1 bushels per acre. At the same time, the number of corn acres planted from 1928 to 1996 has decreased. In 1936, the number of corn acres planted was 101,959, whereas in 1996 the number of corn acres planted was 79,487. Yet at the same time the total U.S. corn production has increased from 2,140,270, bushels in 1926 to 9,293,435, bushels in 1996. Much of these advances have been made possible by advances in technology such as developing better seeds, better weed killers and fertilizers, no-till farming methods, and the like. However, the agricultural community is always searching for further improvements to increase yield.
There are many types of data that farmers and research companies are continually striving to collect, one of which is counting stalks of corn in the field as the stalks are being harvested. Seed developers, chemical companies, farmers and even insurance companies have been seeking for years a reliable method of counting stalks of corn as they are harvested. Corn technology has progressed to the point where genetic alteration has enabled scientists to develop seed varieties which meet climatic conditions in all 50 states and around the world. To develop these hybrids, developers plant multiple fields with various seed types, but need to verify the quantity of yield before going to market. Conventionally, these companies use manual labor to go into a field and count crops. However, such a manually intensive approach is neither cost effective nor reliable.
In an effort to overcome the problems and excessive cost involved in manually counting stalks of corn in the field, automatic counting devices which can be attached to a combine have been developed. Unfortunately, these known counting devices do not perform adequately.
One known device is comprised of a mechanical ticker which is tripped by a passing stalk. The problem with such a device is that the manual ticker can become tangled on leaves from the stalks and other debris as the combine passes through the rows of corn.
Another such device for counting stalks of corn relies upon optical light detection. In this device, an optical infrared or other light sensor is mounted to a row separator or other part of the combine and the sensor is activated as a stalk of corn passes the optical clearance of the sensor. Unfortunately, however, leaves and other debris also enter the optical clearance and trip the light sensor so that the count obtained is highly inaccurate. That is to say, these known devices do not provide an accurate count of stalks of corn because they cannot distinguish between actual stalks of corn and other debris such as leaves.
Chemical companies that produce weed killers and fertilizers also have been seeking an accurate way to evaluate plant survival to the time of harvest, such as counting crops as they are harvested and then comparing the count to the number of seeds planted in any given area. Comparing such data enables fertilizer and weed killer producers to evaluate the effectiveness of their products.
Farmers are also desirous of having data on the count of crops harvested. For instance, a farmer who plants using no-till methods uses a device that drills each seed into the ground at the time of planting. If the farmer had an accurate method and apparatus to count the corn stalks in each row as they are harvested, the farmer could judge his or her seed drill performance. Modern farmers are particularly advanced in their farming methods, relying on some of the high tech techniques described above. However, more accurate and reliable methods and apparati for counting stalks of corn as they are harvested is needed.